Friday, September 28, 2018

Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 28 September 2018 - 4 October 2018

It's my birthday, and… Guys, I had only vaguely heard of some of these movies before tonight.

Okay, I have seen previews for Smallfoot, a cute-looking animated movie about a tribe of yetis for whom humans are legendary creatures, until one (voice of Channing Tatum) meets a hairless hiker (voice of James Corden). Some 3D shows among the mostly-2D ones at the Capitol (2D only), Fresh Pond (2D only), Boston Common, South Bay, Fenway, Assembly Row, Revere (including MX4D) and the SuperLux (2D only).

The biggest release is probably director Malcolm D. Lee's Night School, with Kevin Hart as the regular guy who needs to attend night school to get his GED and Tiffany Haddish as the no-nonsense/possibly-insane teacher in charge of the class. It's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway (including RPX), the Seaport, South Bay (including Dolby Cinema), Assembly Row (including Dolby Cinema), Revere (including XPlus), and the SuperLux. There's also Hell Fest, with a serial killer chasing a bunch of teenagers around a Halloween-themed amusement park while most of the visitors think it's just part of the show. Director Gregory Plotkin edited Get Out, Game Night, and Happy Death Day, so maybe he can do something with it. That's at Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Fenway, South Bay, Assembly Row, and Revere.

Surprisingly, this year's version of Little Women - set in the present day rather than as a period piece - only appears to being playing at Boston Common. Similarly, Fenway is the only place with Science Fair, a National Geographic-produced documentary about nine kids from around the world looking to reach the International Science and Engineering Fair with their projects. The 6:30pm show on Friday is listed as a "Q&A Event", although I can't find specific guests listed anywhere.

Tangled is the week's entry in AMC's Disney Princess series at Boston Common, South Bay, and Assembly Row, while the monthly Ghibli show at Fenway & Revere is My Neighbor Totoro (dubbed Sunday & Wednesday, subtitled Monday). Documentary Above and Beyond: NASA's Journey to Tomorrow plays Fenway on Saturday and Fenway & Revere on Tuesday. Fenway and Revere also have a "Bloody Disgusting Retro Nightmare" of what look like two of the lesser Amityville films on Thursday. Revere also has Mean Girls on Sunday and Wednesday.

Lots of places also have special early screenings of A Star Is Born on Tuesday and Wednesday, in addition to the regular night-before shows on Thursday

Colette features Keira Knightley as the French author who, having published under her husband's name, looks to take credit for her own work, and plays at The Coolidge Corner Theatre, Kendall Square, West Newton, and Boston Common.

The Coolidge has The Room in the main room at midnight on Friday, but the real After Midnite event is upstairs, where William Lustig will do a post-film Q&A of Vigilante (shown on 35mm), and then return on Saturday to receive the Coolidge After Midnite Award and have a panel discussion after Maniac Cop 2, widely considered his magnum opus. Monday has both a "Stage & Screen" presentation of Clue, but also a special "Wide Lens" screening of Fahrenheit 11/9 with one of its subjects, New York Congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, on hand for post-film discussion. They wrap the week up with a 35mm Cinema Jukebox presentation of All That Jazz.

Kendall Square also opens Hal, a documentary on seminal 1970s director Hal Ashby, and they've got a few special shows to go with it: The 7:15pm show on Friday has producer Christine Beebe and musician Al Kooper, who did the soundtrack for Ashby's 1970 film The Landlord. They also screen Ashby's Harold and Maude on Saturday morning and Being There on Sunday. They also have a subtitled screening of anime adventure My Hero Academia: Two Heroes on Tuesday.

Boston Common has two Chinese movies opening this weekend, both kind of curious: Golden Job reunites the stars of the late 1990s Young and Dangerous series (which is, of course, currently impossible to find in the USA) in a new movie, this time playing mercenaries deciding to pull one risky job in part as payback. That opens Friday; Fat Buddies starts on Sunday, and features Bao Bei-er (who also directs) and Zhang Wen as two secret agents who have kind of let themselves go, with part of the gag being that both are heartthrobs playing their parts in fat suits.

Boston Common and Apple Fresh Pond both appear to be getting Sui Dhaaga: Made in India, which features Varun Dhawan and Anushka Sharma as, I believe, a married couple who find fame through pursuing traditional handcrafts. Fresh Pond also opens Devadas in Telugu, has Malayalam comedy Theevandi on Saturday, and continues Tamil drama Chekka Chivantha Vaanam and thriller Captain Nawab (with at least some screenings of the Hindi movie in Telugu). Fenway has an encore screening of Kannada-language film Sarakari Hiriya Prathamika Shale, Kasargud, Koduge Ramanna Rai on Sunday.

The Somerville Theatrehas the back end of their third annual 70mm and Widescreen Festival this weekend, with The Witches of Eastwick and The Thing on Friday, an afternoon "Odds & Ends" show on Saturday with Patton in the evening, and their brand-new, never-run-through-a-projector print of 2001: A Space Odyssey on Sunday (although I suspect Dave will preview it to make sure it's okay sometime before that). They also pick up Assassination Nation and Love Gilda for the other two screens open while renovations continue downstairs (including the Museum of Bad Art).

After the Festival concludes, the Brattle has guests: Penny Lane attends a DocYard screening of her film The Pain of Others on Monday, and several members of the cast will be on-hand for an IFFBoston screening of Mid90s on Tuesday. After that, they get a head start on picking up the baton for the Bergman 100, with Summer Interlude on Wednesday and Torment on Thursday.

The MFA holds BWFF selection I Am Not a Witch over during October, starting with a screening Wednesday evening. Wednesday also marks the start of their Let the Devil In: 50 Years of British Horror series with a 35mm print of An American Werewolf in London, with the series continuing Thursday with Ben Wheatley's A Field in England. Thursday also marks the start of a run of 306 Hollywood, which blends documentary with surrealism as two siblings work to clean out their grandmother's house.

The Boston Latino International Film Festival also runs through Sunday, with screenings at Emerson's Paramount Theater, Harvard's Tsai Auditorium, Brandeis University's Wasserman Cinematheque, and Northeastern University.

After that, the screening room in the Paramount is occupied by Bright Lights, whose free screenings this week are two IFFBoston alums: Generation Wealth on Tuesday, featuring a discussion with director Lauren Greenfield, and Sadie on Thursday, with director Megan Griffiths.

The Harvard Film Archive welcomes Ali Cherri on Friday, conversing with host Lucien Castaing-Taylor around a selection of his short films. After that, Bergman 100 continues with The Silence (Saturday 7pm), The Passion of Anna (Saturday 9pm on 35mm), Fanny and Alexander (Sunday 1pm), and Wild Strawberries (Monday 7pm on 35mm). They also start a short Alice Rohrwacher retrospective with The Wonders (Sunday 7pm).

The Regent Theatre has encore screenings of two rock docs this week: Joan Jett: Bad Reputation plays Friday night, and John Lyndon doc The Public Image Is Rotten plays Wednesday (it also plays the Kendall that night).

Cinema Salem has screenings of the 2018 edition of the Manhattan Short Film Festival, which features audience voting, throughout the week; it also screens at the MFA on Saturday. They also screen Nicolas Cage/Panos Cosmatos freakout Mandy

Sox-Yankees this weekend, and I've got a ticket for Friday, and a weekend full of 70mm and Chinese movies after that. The week could feature a lot of fun catching-up or going home exhausted and ready to crash after work.